Philip Hobsbaum
Philip Dennis Hobsbaum (29 June 1932 - 28 June 2005)http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2005/jul/07/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries was an English poet, academic, and literary critic.http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050723/news_1m23hobsbaum.html. Life Hobsbaum was born into a PolishJewish family in London, and brought up in Bradford, in Yorkshire. He read English at Downing College, Cambridge, where he was taught and heavily influenced by F.R. Leavis. At Cambridge he took over the editing of the magazine delta from Peter Redgrove. After Cambridge, he worked as a school teacher in London from 1955 to 1959, when he moved to the University of Sheffield to study for a Ph.D. under William Empson. In 1962 he took up an academic position at Queen's University, Belfast, and moved again in 1966,http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article540710.ece to take up a post in the University of Glasgow. He was awarded a personal chair in 1985, and retired from the University in 1997; he remained in Glasgow until his death in 2005. The Group(s) Hobsbaum's most direct impact on literature was as the animating force behind The Group, a sequence of writing workshops in Cambridge, London, Belfast and Glasgow, in turn. Although there was some slight overlap in personnel with The Movement, the various incarnations of the Group had a more concrete existence and a more practical focus. The Cambridge Group was initially concerned with the oral performance of poetry, but soon turned into an exercise in practical criticism and mutual support for a network of poets. This Group relocated to London when Hobsbaum moved there in 1955, becoming The Group, and continuing until 1965, chaired by Edward Lucie-Smith after Hobsbaum's departure for Sheffield. In Belfast (1962-1966), Hobsbaum organised a new weekly discussion group, which became known as The Belfast Group and included the emerging authors John Bond, Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley, Derek Mahon, Stewart Parker and Bernard MacLaverty. In Glasgow, Hobsbaum became once again the nucleus of a group of new and distinctive authors, including Alasdair Gray, Liz Lochhead, James Kelman, Tom Leonard, Aonghas MacNeacail and Jeff Torrington. This group continued to meet until 1975, and unlike the previous groups developed a more pronounced focus on prose than on poetry. As an encore, Hobsbaum was instrumental in setting up, in 1995, the successful MLitt in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. Writing Hobsbaum was best known as a critic . And though, as one of his obituarists noted, "he was famously not a man who felt a pressing need to endear himself to students", he was a charismatic teacher, and fiercely committed to those with a commitment to literature. Recognition The dedication of Alasdair Gray's The Book of Prefaces is "to Philip Hobsbaum poet, critic and servant of servants of art". Seamus Heaney also dedicated the poem "Blackberry-Picking" (from Death of a Naturalist, 1966) to Hobsbaum. Publications Poetry *''The Place's Fault, and other poems''. London: Macmillan / New York: St. Martin's Press, 1964. *''Snapshots''. Belfast: Festival Publications, 1967. *''Some Lovely Glorious Nothing: A poem''. London: Martin Booth / Sceptre Press, 1969. *''In Retreat, and other poems''. London: Macmillan / New York: St.Martin's Press, 1966. *''Coming Out Fighting''. London, Melbourne, & Toronto: Macmillan, 1969. *''Women and Animals''. London: Macmillan, 1972. *''The Pattern of Poetry'' (1962) Non-fiction *''A Theory of Communication''. London: Macmillan, 1970. ** published in U.S. as Theory of Criticism. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1970. *''A Reader's Guide To Charles Dickens''. London: Thames & Hudson, 1972; New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1972. *''Robert Lowell: The mask behind the face''. Midlothian, Scotland, UK: W. Macdonald, 1976. *''Tradition and Experiment in English Poetry''. London: Macmillan, 1979; Totowa, NJ: Rowan & Littlefield, 1979. *''A Reader's Guide to D.H. Lawrence''. London & New York: Thames & Hudson, 1981. *''Essentials Of Literary Criticism''. London & New York: Thames & Hudson, 1983. *''A Reader's Guide to Robert Lowell''. London & New York: Thames & Hudson, 1988. *''William Wordsworth: Selected Poetry and Prose'' (Routledge, 1989), editor *''Channels of Communication: Papers from the Conference of Higher Education Teachers of English'' (edited with Paddy Lyons & Jim McGhee). Glasgow: Dept. of English Literature, University of Glasgow, 1992. *''Metre, Rhythm And Verse Form''. London & New York: Routledge, 1996. Edited *''A Group Anthology'' (edited with Edward Lucie-Smith. London, New York, & Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1963. *''Ten Elizabethan Poets''. London, Melbourne, & Toronto: Longman, 1969. *William Wordsworth, Selected Poetry and Prose. London & New York: Routledge, 1989. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Philip Hobsbaum, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Sep. 25, 2014. See also * List of British poets References # In 2002, the Scottish-American poetry magazine The Dark Horse printed an interview with him, in which he discussed his biography and work. # Hobsbaum/Group correspondence archive at University of Texas at Austin # Belfast Creative Writing Group files at Queen's University Belfast Notes External links ;Poems *Poems by Philip Hobsbaum at The Belfast Group (7 poems) ;About *Philip Hobsbaum, 72, British Poet and Critic, Dies, New York Times *Philip Hobsbaum obituary at The Guardian *Philip Hobsbaum in conversation, The Dark Horse *"The Anti-Modernism of Seamus Heaney and Philip Hobsbaum" by Jeffrey Side ;Etc. *Philip Hobsbaum fonds at University of Victoria, Special Collections Category:Academics of the University of Glasgow Category:Alumni of the University of Sheffield Category:English poets Category:English literary critics Category:English Jews Category:Scottish Jews Category:Jewish poets Category:1932 births Category:2005 deaths Category:Alumni of Downing College, Cambridge Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:British academics